The Sense behind the Cent

The American Revolutionary war was officially ended by Congress on April 11, 1783. It is estimated that America had around 3 Million people in it at the time, all from various European countries. All these people brought with them the culture and tradition from their native lands and the great melting pot was born. Along with ideas and traditions came various units of trade. If you could pop back to this time in American history, you would find coins from all over the world being used for trade. Each coin had its own value, look and weight. Imagine the confusion this would cause. It was soon clear that this country needed its own unit of trade, one that was uniform and would be recognized by anyone. And so the penny was born.

Designed by Benjamin Franklin, the first penny was called the fugio cent. It was privately minted from 1787 to 1793 and made solely of copper. The obverse featured the sun shining down on a sundial with the caption “fugio” (I fly or flee) on one side. The bottom says “Mind your business”. The reverse shows 13 interlocking rings meant to represent each of the 13 colonies with the words “we are one” in the center.

From here, a series of what we now call large cents were produced from 1793 to 1856. Here is a list of the different large cent varieties they made:

Flowing Hair Cent (1793)

Liberty Cap Cent (1793-1797)

Draped Bust Cent (1796-1808)

Classic Head Cent (1808-1814)

Coronet Cent (1816-1857)

Matron Head Cent (1816-1839)

Braided Hair Cent (1839-1857)

No pennies were made in 1815 because of the war of 1812 and the shortage of copper that resulted.

By the mid 1800’s, these large cents were quickly becoming unpopular in commerce and expensive to mint. These coins were large and became heavy to pack around. Also, due to inflation, the price of copper started rising so that it was now costing more than 1 cent to make a penny. By 1850, pennies were no longer profitable to mint.

In 1856, the flying eagle cent came into circulation (pictured above). This coin was much smaller than its counterpart and was made of only 88% copper. The other 12% was nickel, which was a much more affordable metal. To get these new “small cents”, people could exchange their large cents or other worn foreign silver. So many flying eagle cents were made that they quickly overwhelmed the system. They were not considered legal tender and therefore banks and other merchants did not have to accept the coins. Flying eagle cents were only minted for three years. The eagle design did not strike well and it was replaced by the Indian head Cent (pictured below).

The Indian head cent was minted from 1859-1909. Most of these coins were minted to pay union soldiers during the Civil War. After the war, in 1864, its composition was changed once again to be 95% copper and 5% zinc. Also in this year the Coinage act of 1864 was passed. This act made the one cent coin legal tender and now merchants and banks across the country had to accept them.

In 1909, to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s 100th birthday, the design on the penny was changed once again. Commonly known as the wheat cent (pictured below), this coin featured a profile view of Lincoln on the obverse and a pair of wheat ears circling the words “one cent” on the reverse Lincoln was the first historical figure to be used on a US coin and his picture remains on the penny to this day.

Although its design has changed many times, the purpose of the cent remains the same. It was not only our first official coin, but it helped shape our nation. Check out all the different cents we have for sale on Ebay and our website and stay tuned for more about the infamous wheat cent